On Deck Series Gameday: Phillies vs Blue Jays

Baseball is finally back at Citizens Bank Park. This year, the On Deck Series welcomes the Toronto Blue Jays to Philadelphia. With Spring Training finished, these two games for the Phillies will serve as tune-up games, and you can expect Charlie Manuel to hint at his lineup some more. Tonight, he has Ben Revere hitting leadoff again, with Jimmy Rollins hitting second. This is trend that I think most Phillies fans would hope continues into the regular season. He also has Michael Young splitting up the three lefties in Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Domonic Brown, slotting him in between Howard and Brown. This is a lineup that I think many would love to see on opening day, except with Laynce Nix getting the call against Tim Hudson rather than John Mayberry Jr.

Cliff Lee will be on the mound, and will go for at least three innings in the brisk Philadelphia air. This will be Ben Revere’s first game in front of the home crowd at Citizens Bank Park, so, if you’re going to the game, show him a warm welcome!

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13 Comments

Ken Bland

March 29, 2013 at 7:37 pm

Joel Sherman offered some crystal ball perceptions in the NY Post today. Expressed the feeling that Dom Brown would smack 25 homers this year (very nice, at least for starters), and that Ben Revere would “flop” (hadn’t really considered that possibility) and that would lead to ther Ryne Sandberg era. Which put ,my mind to wander.

Charlie has publicly indicated a desire to continue managingl. Personally, when I’ve heard him say it, it has a tone to it that says if they decide they don’t want me here, I’ll just go elsewhere.else.

I’m sure Phil Jackson is a really good basketball coach. Team uo with that high iq Knicks club under Red Holzman, and you’re flying frpm the get go, but Phil’s also had some good personnel fortune.

Could Charlie travel Philllip’s path? Catch the Phils on an upswing, and somehow convince Mike Rizzo he’s worthy pf replacing Johnson? Think Jayson might not tell Rizzo Charli’e werth some consideration? With Strasburg, Harper and company just entering puberty, that could be Charlie’s 2nd right place, right time step In and of itself, it’d make for a fascinating story. There’s at least a little Johnny Keane and Casey Stengel in it..

Well, I picked up where I left off. Phils offense was looking terrific then I go to a game… flat. At least I got to see some good pitching by the Phils (except Aumont). Lee did not seem to have much going on his fastball but his curve was taking the Jays to school.

Brooks and everyone else, IMO- In Spring Training the ball flies differently than it does in the double and triple decked (and this time of year, colder) stadiums. For instance a 25mph wind in Florida is going to carry more balls out than the same wind at CBP. There is just less resistance from the stadium structures themselves. So, no, it’s not an illusion, it’s just the way it is.

Of course we could get rid of the second deck, batters eye, and scoreboard- and replace it with a berm and a tiki bar here too, but the guys in the bullpen won’t like it very much! Personally, I prefer the way the big league parks play, it’s more normal to me. Most of the parks in Florida are like crazy wild west shooting galleries.

The short answer for me is no. I could state all of my reasons but it would take a lot of words and I just don’t feel like doing it right now.

I’ll only note that the article did hint at some flexibility in the Phils’ way of doing things (they are aware of the numbers (they still have people tracking pitch location and such) and that there are a lot of things which can’t be quantified. Just because they rely on scouting more than numbers doesn’t mean that they are totally ignoring those numbers, and I think their success over the past several years shows that they basically do things right. I also don’t base much of anything on 2012; no team’s numbers are going to look good when their #3 and #4 hitters miss nearly half the season.

I do, especially if they actually practice a lot of what they publicly preach. I am all for a team relying heavily on their scouts. However, doing so should not exclude supplementing their scouts’ opinions with advanced statistical analysis, even when that analysis contradicts some traditional, old school views. Over-valuing RBI’s and under-valuing BB’s when analyzing individual players is how you end up paying $1M to $3M to the likes of Delmon Young.

Scary? No. But I don’t like it as much as I do making use of every available resource, no matter what it is. Technological, metrics, eye test, use it all!

This divide between the old time way and the new way is curious to me. I’m old and I love the newer metrics, but I also believe you have to consider “makeup” when selecting young athletes. I just think they could make use of everything at their disposal. Why not?